Photo: Gary Stevens · CC BY 2.0Work means Massena for about two in five of Massena’s working residents
Home is the office for 5% of workers, where New York as a whole has 15%. Jobs and income earn Massena D; getting around on foot earns it B+. Household incomes here are lower than in 86% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Massena stands out on work
Commutes from Massena are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 33 across New York. That’s about 115 hours a year less on the road than the typical New York worker. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How the Jobs & income grade adds up in Massena
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Massena is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #746 of 758 in New York. All four inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Massena’s grade.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Massena could be anywhere from D− to C−.
About 18 minutes each way, quicker than most of New York
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Massena workers work from home, vs 15% across New York. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,289 commuters (the 5% who work from home are left out). Across New York: 57% drive alone, 25% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
The places Massena commutes to
Where Massena clocks in
43% of workers
7% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Who works in Massena, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 2,413 residents head out to work, 1,090 work right here, and 2,339 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.98 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Inside Massena’s 3,429 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Massena, 2013 → 2023: 4,372 → 3,429. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Massena’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How many miles Massena commutes
About 24% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Driving is how Massena gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Massena is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns, #332 of 758 in New York. Both inputs place Massena near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 4,526 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 14.2% of Massena households have no vehicle (New York 29.2%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Massena’s commuters take a bus or train.
Massena and other U.S. towns of 6,900 to 13,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 97 | East Rockaway NY | 10,096 | $125K | 2.6% | 3.2% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 100 | North Castle NY | 12,360 | $208K | 3.8% | 3.1% | 8% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 131 | Hastings-on-Hudson NY | 8,440 | $194K | 2.3% | 4.1% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,714 | Elk City OK | 11,335 | $51K | 22.8% | 8.4% | 46% | D |
| 2,715 | Belen NM | 7,589 | $43K | 31.2% | 8.0% | 16% | D |
| 2,716 | Massena NY | 9,898 | $51K | 24.3% | 6.5% | 31% | D |
| 2,717 | Beverly Hills FL | 9,650 | $46K | 19.8% | 8.9% | 3% | D |
| 2,718 | Berlin NH | 9,502 | $45K | 15.3% | 7.1% | 33% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,792 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Massena, the top three, the last and three more from New York.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Massena: questions
What is the median household income in Massena?
$51,458 (±$7,458) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $85,974 across New York and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Massena?
24.3%, against 14.0% across New York and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Massena?
18 minutes each way on average, against 33 across New York and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Massena work?
31% work in town.
Is Massena walkable?
Massena is more walkable than 75% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.1 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Massena without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Massena, from the people who make the trip.
More of Massena
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.